When you have hundreds of thousands of passionate fans and a legacy as a winner, a rebrand can be a dangerous thing. The University of Georgia and Nike teamed up for such a rebrand across all of its athletic teams, but the pair may have saved themselves a lot of heartache and grief by not bringing too much change to the school’s beloved football team.

It’s been 15 months in the making, and now the world can feast its eyes on just how the pair have decided to “promote a consistent and unified look across all sports” at Georgia, the Atlanta Journal-Constitutionreports.

One of the odder bits in UGA's rebranding by Nike, which also just revamped the branding for Oregon State, is the introduction of a secondary logo that features a bulldog, the school’s mascot, which doesn’t look quite as unhappy and tough as the school’s previous secondary logo of a bulldog.Continue reading...

AT&T is leveraging the popularity of its "It's not complicated" campaign by switching out children from the TV commercials that broke in November with retired basketball stars such as Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson and Bill Russell for March Madness.

In partnership with the NCAA and Turner Broadcasting's TBS, TNT and truTV, AT&T is showing its social media muscle, pumping out Promoted Tweets from the NCAA's @MarchMadness Twitter handle during numerous college basketball games, such as Florida Gulf Coast's two-game run to the Sweet 16 round.

"We want to provide behind-the-scenes content so people from their living rooms on their couches can be a part of the on-site game experience," said Blair Klein, social, digital and emerging communications lead at AT&T, to Adweek.

"Engaging fans around the things they are passionate about helps live our core values—connecting with customers and allowing them to engage with each other and the brand. This [Twitter-based] program reflects that, as well as the speed of conversation. It ties in with our 'fastest 4G LTE network' copy."Continue reading...

So, for instance, now through the championship game on April 8, Papa John's has an online promotion that can result in an offer for a free large pizza with up to three toppings on a future order. At the same time, Papa John's is competing for mouths at a time of a potentially significant hiccup for the brand, as its CMO, Andrew Varga, resigns to take the reigns of Zimmerman Advertising. The only consolation for Papa John's is that Zimmerman handles its advertising.Continue reading...

Analysts had thought that Nike’s third quarter earnings would come in at 67 cents per share, but when the info was finally doled out Thursday, the company surprised with a 16 percent increase in net income to $662 million. That’s 73 cents per share. Not too shabby.

The sporting brand saw growth across the globe, except for a teensy consumer market called Asia. Apparently, Nike is doing just fine without China and Japan, as stocks hit a 20-month high at $58.69, Bloomberg reports.

"Our team delivered strong results in Q3. We did it with a relentless flow of innovation into our key categories," said Mark Parker, president and CEO of Nike. "Given the diversity of our portfolio, we're able to capture big opportunities that drive sustainable, profitable growth. At the same time we continue to invest in new ways to enhance athletic performance, build strong consumer communities, and improve how we design and manufacture our products. That’s how we increase our potential and drive shareholder value."Continue reading...

President Obama may have picked Indiana University to win this year’s whole NCAA men’s basketball tournament, but there is a lot of basketball to watch between now and the final championship game on April 8.

Brand marketers are very attracted to all those eyeballs, and the ones associated with specific teams and the NCAA are no different. College sport’s governing body will find any way it can to lodge its name into the minds of viewers when it takes center stage in college tournaments and championships.

Nike introduced the FuelBand wristband in January 2012, and it has apparently sold well enough for the company to further invest in its growth as the device at the center of the connected universe it envisions. News on how Nike plans to boost its mobile/digital offering sets the stage for the company's quarterly earnings call on Thursday.

The athletic-wear giant's inaugural Nike Accelerator mobile development incubator, announced late last year, this week awarded $20,000 to 10 different startups that are building apps for its Nike+ products. The hope, CNET reports, is “to create a platform in much the same way that Apple has created a platform with iTunes and Microsoft with Windows.”

Hundreds of app ideas were proposed to Nike and its partner, TechStars, and the 10 that will receive funding as well as mentoring from Nike include “games that encourage users to exercise and a corporate wellness app that espouses healthy living habits,” CNET notes. The companies will work on their apps in Portland, Oregon, near Nike’s campus, and then pitch them to Nike bigwigs, venture capitalists and angel investors in June.Continue reading...

Beginning Sunday with the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament selection show on CBS, March Madness will get a grip on America. And that's the cue once again for a number of prominent brands to try to get a grip on March Madness fans.

Among brands that will be either sponsoring March Madness telecasts or advertising heavily during the next few weeks on the broadcast and cable networks that carry the 68-team tournament are Buick, Acura, Dove Men+Care and ING.

"The goal with March Madness advertising is reaching that core target and gaining prestige with them by associating with a prestigious event, as well as reaching next-generation fans and that passion of the recent graduate," Gary Robinson, manager of advertising and brand for Acura in the U.S., told brandchannel.Continue reading...